NZ Algae Biodiesel Producer to Join Girvan Institute

5 September 2006

The Silicon Valley-based Girvan Institute of Technology has invited Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, a New Zealand company that produces biodiesel from algae sourced from sewerage ponds, to join.

The Girvan Institute is a non-profit, public benefit corporation established to speed up the development of cutting edge technologies into useful products and services. Girvan’s affiliates and partners include global research labs, Fortune 1000 companies, small and medium high-tech companies and a number of private equity and venture capital firms.

In late 2005, Aquaflow began a pilot test with the Marlborough (NZ) District Council to extract algae from its excess pond discharge. Aquaflow processes the algae pulp and the extracts lipid oil, which serves as the feedstock for biodiesel production.

In May 2006, Aquaflow announced it had produced its first sample of biodiesel from the sewerage algae. Aquaflow is now concentrating on increasing the production from its process, and testing the resulting fuel in a range of engines.

The company anticipates producing at least 1 million liters (264,172 gallons US) of biodiesel per year from its first production facility in New Zealand, to be located in Blenheim. Following the successful trial in May, Aquaflow has set up a US subsidiary.

Aquaflow recently secured funding for further research and development of the technology from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (New Zealand). Aquaflow is preparing a prospectus as its announcement has attracted considerable interest from potential investors.

This [invitation] is a huge opportunity for Aquaflow. We were thrilled when they approached us to join the institute. Silicon Valley is where the research and investment action is and Girvan can open so many doors for us. We’re looking at a number of propositions and talking to some major league players. The invitation to join Girvan seemed like a smart way to establish a sales base in Silicon Valley

Comments

rock on NZ!

another example of a country actively concerned with resolving environmental problems making boku bucks.

obviously, turning poo into fuel through algae isn't going to solve the fuel crisis or climate change (prob not even 1%), but it could reform one part of our lifestyle and turn one waste into a profit source and you can't complain about that.

Other methods turn sewage/garbage into CH4. The two (biomass methane and fuels from algae) could replace most of the liquid and gas forms of fossil energy for heating, commercial, transport, electrical, and industrial needs.

Just a thought
It seems like there’s a couple of technologies that can be employed here
Why not have the coal industry get involved. Run a coverer through the
Smokestacks to dry the soild waste it can be reprocessed as fuel like they do in Texas with cow chips. Then send it in with the coal lowering the amount of coal needed to burned. With the CO2 Coming out direct it to algae ponds were the algae will use it and the byproduct will be oxygen also with the liquid waste could feed the algae. The algae can be harvested for bio fuel.

Brilliant process, Algae to oil, I'd love to see more of it. To me, it seems like the best short term solution to our energy problems. The U.S. is to coal what the UAE is to oil. We've got enough for the next 200+ years.

Interesting twist: sewage after common-practice secondary treatment contains excess amount of P and N nutrients, which could damage receiving watershed. Biological post-treatment of effluent in polishing ponds (by vegetation grows) is established practice in small do medium sized STP, which is much cheaper then construction of dedicated nutrient removal treatment stages. Growing of biodiesel algae in these ponds is brilliant idea. In addition, this effluent is already loaded to saturation with CO2.

Algae is a great potential feedstock solution for biodiesel, one that I hope will come to bare in the near future.
But NREL did a very thorough study of open pond algae and determined that open pond algae opened up a bigger can of worms then it solved. The bottom line problem was the algae used was GMO. And they found that containing the GMO within the pond was not possible.
Which is why many of the newer technologies have gone with closed systems.
The MIT process is within glass tubes that are angled to the sun attached to power plant flu gas.
One idea that I see as possible is that algae is not just oil, it is oil and starch. If a closed system of algae was hooked up to the CO2 ethanol waste stream, a integrated ethanol/biodiesel plant could grow thier own feedstock with algae in a closed loop system.

And they found that containing the GMO within the pond was not possible.

I thought the problem was the exact opposite: that it was impossible to exclude wild organisms that would outcompete the GMOs (which, after all, are optimized to squander their energy providing fuel for us, not for their own growth).

these algae have bioaccumulated sulpher to acid sulphate soils in the past and other elements, why shouldnt they collect the desirable wastes ie heavy metals ag au pb , and the more insidious compounds may also be treated ie dioxins pcbsin the bacterial phase.